Thursday, September 29, 2016

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN:The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

MY BOOK BEGINNING

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, military leaders began to recognize the impact of multiple deployments on combat veterans and their families.

Monday, September 26, 2016

I found both at The Book Corner, the Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia book store, when I was in Philadelphia for a conference last week. I also visited with these two cats who live in the store.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN:The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Father Egan left off writing, rose from his chair and made his way -- a little unsteadily -- to the bottle of Flor de Cana which he had placed across the room from his desk.

-- A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone. A mishmash of Americans including a whiskey priest, a lapsed nun, a Coast Guard deserter on speed, a dipso college lecturer, gun runners, and assorted CIA operatives and snitches, all still hungover from Vietnam, get caught up in a Central American revolution.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Sensing Light is the debut novel by Dr. Mark Jacobson who worked on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as in intern in 1981 at San Francisco General Hospital. His novel effectively mixes medical history with the personal and professional stories of the people working through the confusing early days of a new era.

Mark recently answered questions for Rose City Reader. His interview is one of the stops on a blog tour for Sensing Light sponsored by Poetic Book Tours.

How did you come to write Sensing Light?

I’ve always loved reading fiction and, as a young man, dreamed of writing a novel that could move people in the way my favorite authors moved me. However, I never put in the time and effort necessary for such an undertaking until 2008 after a bicycling accident left me unconscious for several hours. That experience caused a tectonic shift in my attitude toward my own mortality. Instead of simply comprehending the abstract fact that I wasn’t going to live forever, I began to fully believe that fact and accordingly reconsidered my life goals. I certainly didn’t want to stop seeing patients or teaching medical students and residents in our HIV clinic (and I still don’t!), but I also realized that writing any more grants or papers wasn’t going to add substantively to the modest impact I’ve been fortunate to have on the practice of medicine. Suddenly, that youthful dream of writing a novel didn’t seem so impossible. I could imagine a story that I was actually well-equipped to tell. I began gradually winding down my research studies and commitments and started to develop that story.

You have such a personal connection to the story, having started your medical practice at San Francisco General Hospital in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Did you think of writing the story as a memoir instead of fiction?

The thought of writing a memoir or a history of the early days of the epidemic has never appealed to me. While I very much enjoy reading good non-fiction, I can’t arouse any passion for writing it. Creating a story, on the other hand, easily captures and holds my imagination.

How much of your novel is based on true, historical events?

Sensing Light is completely based on historical events but is populated by totally imaginary characters. For example, cases of AIDS (like the first case in Sensing Light) were seen in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles before 1981, but not recognized as a new disease entity linked to certain behaviors until the CDC reported a cluster of such cases in gay men residing in Los Angeles in 1981. Likewise, the timeline of the development and availability of new antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV, which underlies the structure of the last third of the novel, is historically accurate.

How did you research the historical information and detail found in your book?

Since I was a medical student in 1979 when the novel opens, was an intern in 1981 and took care of the first patient diagnosed with AIDS in my hospital soon after the disease was described by the CDC, did an infectious diseases fellowship at UCLA from 1984 to 1986, and have been an HIV specialist at San Francisco General Hospital since then, most of the historical detail found in Sensing Light has been indelibly seared into my memory. However, I did fact check from a number of newspaper and medical journal articles published between 1981 and 1991.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

I learned a lot about creative writing from this experience. Before attempting Sensing Light, my last effort at fiction had been a short story I submitted to high school literary contest, so I truly had to start at ground zero. There were two things I learned that really surprised me. The first was how clueless I was at plotting and creating narrative momentum. Early on, I worked briefly with an excellent editor, Tom Jenks, who patiently showed me everything I did that was wrong, which was essentially everything, and then gave me a reading list of novels to deconstruct the plot elements. That was a very steep learning curve.

The second surprise was discovering how writing, for me, involved developing two polar opposite skills. One is a non-rational, receptive capacity to listen in my mind to characters speak and to an omniscient narrator describe people, places, and events. I simply transcribe what they say. The other skill is a hypercritical form of self-editing that demands justification for every phrase and word in that transcription. I’m not sure this will make sense to others, but it’s the best I can do at this stage of my development as a writer in articulating my process.

What do you think today’s medical profession could learn from the doctors like you who faced HIV/AIDS before the disease was understood or even named?

I think Sensing Light can provide some worthwhile historical perspective for today’s physicians. By the end of the 1960s, there was a wide-spread belief among physician-scientists in the US that we were nearing the end of the era in which infectious diseases were a major cause of morbidity and mortality. A decade later, the AIDS epidemic began; and to date, HIV has directly caused more deaths globally than all military deaths in World Wars I and II combined! If there hadn’t been a handful of scientists in the 1970s already developing knowledge about an obscure class of viruses associated with a rare form of cancer, we would have felt like we were back in the Middle Ages facing the Black Death with no idea what was causing this plague. The AIDS epidemic was a lesson in humility for those of us who were on the front lines in the 1980s. Today’s young physicians should continue to be prepared for the unexpected.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by the authors you read?

I just finished The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen—the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. The novel is set in the 1970s in Vietnam and Los Angeles, and the protagonist is a half-Vietnamese, half-French, South Vietnam army officer and mole for the North Vietnam government. An epic masterpiece and profound meditation on identity!

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

A friend who published a successful memoir told me I would have to re-write my novel 100 times before I would be satisfied with it. I didn’t keep count but am sure she had the order of magnitude right.

What do you do to promote your books? Do you use social networking sites or other internet resources?

I have been very fortunate to have the help of an outstanding publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, who has been able to arrange bookstore readings and radio, television, and blog interviews such as this one. I also have an author website and post all published book reviews and readings and links to interviews on Facebook. Despite all this, it’s still very difficult for an author like me, published by a small press and lacking connections to major newspaper book reviewers or NPR personalities, to get mass market attention in the book world. So publicity has to be primarily by word of mouth.

I am. It’s a more ambitious effort from a literary perspective than Sensing Light was in that I’m aiming for more narrative suspense over a longer time period and more complex character development than in Sensing Light, as well as attempting to create empathy for a protagonist who wants to be altruistic but is morally compromised.

THANKS MARK!

SENSING LIGHT IS AVAILABLE ON-LINE OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER TO ORDER IT!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Jews typically name babies for family members, almost always of the same gender, who have recently died. It's a way to keep the memory of the person a little more "alive," as well as to give the newborn a model to live up to, a link to another soul.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN:The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Shouldn't it be heating up by now?" I stood in my friend Mitch's kitchen one brisk autumn evening denying, against all evidence, that my coffee pit was dying.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

My search for the lost and missing pieces was based on Grandpa George's memoir, and specifically a single line which mentioned Moshe's prolific production of more than eight hundred works. But it was one thing to see that in writing, and another to see numerous photographs of pieces for the war.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN:The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I was born in San Francisco on a summer day in 1969, just over twenty-five years after my great-grandfather perished in the Holocaust.

Moshe Rynecki was a painter and sculptor in pre-war Warsaw. When the Nazis came, he entrusted his art to friends who hid it for him, but when he was killed in the Majdanek concentration camp, his works scattered.

Inspired by Moshe's son's journal describing the art, Elizabeth Rynecki, Moshe's great-granddaughter, worked with art curators, historians, and other supporters to find and catalog Moshe's body of work.

With help from bright and friendly illustrations by Colleen Madden, Latasha's book provides a safe, age-appropriate way to teach children awareness of sexual abuse at a young age. It is designed for parents to read with their 4 - 9 year-olds.

Latasha recently joined us to talk about her book and protecting children from sexual abuse:

How did you come to write kNOw Tiny Secrets?

kNOw Tiny Secrets was born once I chose to start healing and to no longer be a victim of sexual abuse. My daughter was just starting preschool and at the time I was already teaching her about body safety. It hit me like a ton of bricks that my baby was getting older and that my abuser was free and possibly abusing other children. As a child, I never felt empowered to speak up for myself and I was easily convinced that my abuser and his manipulative tactics reigned supreme over everything. I realized that I had to forgive my abuser, bring him to justice, and create a way to bring awareness and protection for all children.

Over the course of about 7 months the book began to materialize but still had no title. I decided to incorporate a key to represent having the key to one’s life; as well as all children kNOwing the secrets of abuse so there will be NO secrets to ever keep.

What is your work or professional background and how did it lead to writing this book?

I’m currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration. I advocate and help others who have been abused and need support. I’ve always been a writer of poems and stories as a child; which was a way to vent during my troubled years and I knew that one day I’d write but I had no idea it would be a healing piece for myself that would help others. I kept many of my creative writing pieces from my teens in hopes of publishing other books in the near future.

Your book is a guide to talking to children about sexual abuse. All parents want to protect their children, but is sex abuse something they should be discussing with young kids?

As a parent, I understand first-hand how discussing sexual abuse with your children can be touchy. However, I’m always encouraged to remind parents that “if we don’t teach our children about sexual abuse, the abuser will.” I’ve heard some parents mention that they would rather wait or not expose their children to the idea of sexual abuse. Again, just because one refuses to acknowledge sexual abuse, does not mean it doesn’t exist. Of children who are sexually abused, 20% are abused before the age of 8 years old; 90% of those abused know their abuser (D2L.org).

We live in a society where our children are being taught about D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) but we have not made it mandatory to teach body safety as part of Elementary education. I commend the D.A.R.E. program and its importance, but I would love to see program of equal importance for sexual abuse prevention/awareness. Having sufficient preventative resources at school and at home could save a child’s life.

Who is your intended audience and how do you hope your readers will use your book?

My intended audience is parents, caretakers, teachers, familial groups, youth-serving organizations, and ALL children. I believe that kNOw Tiny Secrets is a great conversation starter and should be used in conjunction with talking to your children about sexual abuse on a regular basis.

You must first let your child know that they can talk with you about any concerns, no matter how hard it is for us to accept as parents. You are essentially creating a line of communication with your child; therefore you could be the one they confide in. It is helpful to role play and quiz your children to make sure they are confident about what to say in the event of abuse. Empowering our children is not a one-time conversation and you’re done; you must visit the topic regularly as your child grows and develops. I sometimes use sleepovers, family gatherings, or visits as an opportunity to remind my daughter about child sexual abuse prevention and safety protocol.

What did you learn from creating your book – either about the subject of the book or the creative process – that most surprised you?

I learned to have more patience in the creative process of kNOw Tiny Secrets. I felt compelled to have it all done just because it seemed overdue but life had other plans. The first illustrator that I chose for the book was one who was just right for my vision and what I wanted to bring to life. We shared ideas, family stories, and experiences. However, after about 4 months she decided to take on another project and I was devastated. I can remember driving in my car crying and feeling rejected because I was not equipped to pick another illustrator. I just knew she was the one and that was all I could wrap my mind around. A voice quickly reminded me that everything was okay and I could move on and find the right fit for the project despite how I felt.

I immediately drove home and got online to find the “one” once again. After sifting through about 3-4 artist profiles, I found a few that I liked but the last profile I came across was the “one.” I was blown away by Colleen Madden's sample features and I fell in love with the idea that she might consider working on my project, if I could get up enough nerve to send her a proposal. By the end of the day my close friend reminded me that I had to ask her to do my book no matter how awesome her work or how high her estimates were. She reminded me that if it was meant for me to have her, then a way would be made. Well that night I sent my proposal and we negotiated everything within a few days. I was thankful for her acceptance because the subject matter is one that some think twice about representing. Colleen had a lot of experience in areas that gave me an advantage when preparing my book. Had I not had her expertise, I probably would not have a book worth presenting to readers. Towards the end of my project's completion, I was notified that Colleen had completed a book for one of my favorite childhood singers -- that was my sign that it was meant for me from the beginning. While this book was stressful bringing it all together, it is a true reward. You are a survivor of child sexual abuse yourself and an advocate for survivors. What resources would you recommend for survivors of child sexual abuse? Especially for survivors raising children of their own?

There are a some resources out there that I recommend personally for survivors of sexual abuse and one of my favorites is The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis, which is a for both men and women. The book is literally like a healing class that you can take and revisit as often as you like. This particular book also has a healing workbook that you may find helpful when dealing with the effects of abuse. You cannot rush healing, I believe it is something that has no deadline because you don’t heal to forget, but you find positive ways to cope. Another great book that I love for survivors who are parents is Trigger Points, edited by Joyelle Brandt and Dawn Daum; such an awesome compilation of raw poetic stories by survivors who are now parenting.

I believe in counseling/therapy as part of a healing plan; one in which you are comfortable with. There are local agencies, non-profits, advocacy centers, that offer victims assistance with costs of counseling. The side effects of sexual abuse are life-long; every person is affected differently. Before you can heal, you must face the truth. You must first rescue the child inside of you, so that you can have the will to save your own child. Darkness to Light is a nationally recognized organization that helps spread awareness, has updated statistics, and teaches organizations prevention courses. Tapping into the resources that suit your growth is what is most important. The ones that make you feel welcomed are the ones you should entertain.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as a parent about protecting your children from sexual abuse?

Remembering that child sexual abuse has no face, age, gender, type, or limits. The ones that you trust are the ones you must pay close attention to. Typically, you don’t get something from nothing; therefore knowing the signs of sexual abuse, allows you to seek immediate help while giving unconditional support. We all have a duty when it comes to reporting abuse. As an adult, you are the responsible party when abuse is suspected, as well as upon disclosure. Helping to protect innocent children from abuse is a life-saving experience.

What other resources and information do you have about your book and teaching children about sexual abuse?

Find out more about the book and how to protect kids from sexual abuse:

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

With a single stride he was out of the café, not turning around, and I felt an emptiness all of a sudden. . . . Without him, without his help, I wonder what would have become of me, ten years back, when I was struck by amnesia and was groping about in a fog.

-- Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2014. Missing Person was published in 1978 and is, on the surface at least, a post-war noir mystery of the narrator's search to discover his own lost identity.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN:The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.